La Jeune Sculpture, Daniel Dewar and Gregory Gicquel

27 May to 26 October 2014

La Jeune Sculpture, Daniel Dewar and Gregory Gicquel

Continuing its dialogue with contemporary art, the Musée Rodin is opening the garden of the Hôtel Biron to the artist duo Dewar & Gicquel.

Working together since they met in 1997 and winners of the Prix Marcel Duchamp award in 2012, they explore a highly experimental path between erudition and amateurism, the re-examination of the history of art and the showcasing of craftsmanship.

Ten large-scale concrete sculptures have been designed and produced specifically for the exhibition. Modelled, cast and assembled by the artists using traditional sculpture techniques, these works are independent and yet form a unit. They represent fragments of naked bodies, some sculpted in the round, others more architectural. Bodies of athletes and wrestlers, whose monumental aspect does not exclude the wearing of familiar clothing nor the more incongruous presence of bathroom items.

In line with the museum's background and as part of a practice already developed by the artists based on image and sculpture, such a production refers to the work of Rodin, considered as "a starting point to enable us to work on a specific technique: casting as a major stage of the sculptural process" according to the artists . But unlike Rodin, Dewar & Gicquel, as well as carrying out each stage of the production themselves, destroy the moulds after use in order to limit their production to a single copy. An effective way of considering the question of reproducibility in their approach.

The exhibition and works titles are to be read as a reference to the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture, which was regularly held at the Musée Rodin from the post-war period until the 60s.